Sometimes an aircraft is damaged during service. For example, the aircraft skin may become dented, buckled, scratched, punctured, or otherwise indented during operation. When an aircraft is damaged, qualified personnel with specialized training or knowledge, such as an airline mechanic, may be needed to assess the damage to the aircraft. Specifically, the airline mechanic may determine if the aircraft should be serviced immediately before further operation. The airline mechanic may also determine if the aircraft should be restricted to specific routes until service is performed. For example, sometimes an aircraft may need to be restricted to non-reduced vertical separation minimum (non-RVSM) airspace depending on the severity and the location of the damage on the aircraft.
Inspecting the aircraft may incur significant time and expenses for an airline. For example, sometimes a damaged aircraft may be situated at an airline outstation, away from the airline's main maintenance hub. There might not be any mechanics that are qualified to inspect the damaged aircraft located at the outstation location. As a result, the airline may need to have a qualified mechanic travel from the airline's main maintenance hub to the outstation in order to inspect the aircraft. This creates travel related expenses for the airline. Moreover, it may take significant time for the airline mechanic to measure the damage on an aircraft, and to compare the damage with a diagram to assess the extent and severity of the damage. If the damage is located within a RVSM critical area of the aircraft, then it may be especially important to accurately assess the damage. Finally, airline personnel may also need to update an aircraft maintenance database as well as a flight planning schedule in the event the airline mechanic determines that the aircraft should be grounded or restricted to only non-RVSM airspace.
Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that all of the above-mentioned issues may incur significant expense to the overall operations of an airline. Thus, there exists a continuing need for an improved, cost-effective approach for assessing damage to an aircraft.